Covering Mexican Fútbol in American English

Olympics: Mexico vs Germany – Recap and Highlights

Mexico twice took the lead but ultimately failed to hold it as they played out an exciting 2-2 draw with Germany in the opening match of Group C. The heavy rain and perhaps some tournament-opening nerves resulted in a fairly stagnant first half, but the game burst to life in the second 45.

In the 52nd minute, Oribe Peralta – whose goals in the London 2012 final gave Mexico the Olympic gold – opened the scoring. Peralta met a corner kick and sent his header into the top corner to make it 1-0 for the El Tri U-23s.

But just six minutes later, Germany found the equalizer. Serge Gnabry, who was an early substitute following an injury to Leon Goretzka, finished off a good ball from Niklas Sule to make it 1-1.

A trio of current and former Pachuca players combined soon after that to put Mexico back in front. In the 61st minute, Hirving “Chucky” Lozano sent in a cross from the left that Marco Bueno met; his header hit the crossbar, but the rebound fell for Rodolfo Pizarro, who put it away.

After that flurry of goals – three of them in nine minutes – the game settled and it looked like Mexico might hold on to the 2-1 lead. However, in the 78th minute, Germany equalized once again.

Matthias Ginter got around Jorge Torres Nilo to get his head to the ball and send it past Alfredo Talavera, making it 2-2.